And in the Second Month...

Last month, it was like wading through a river of loud, obnoxious, smelly, semi-conscious legal adults, (although in many cases I disagree on the legitimacy of their adulthood). This month... its like 2/3's of the people who were on campus for one reason or another... are gone. It no longer takes me 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot. There is no longer a reenactment of the running of the bulls in the cafeteria, but then the cafeteria closes at 2p.m. now instead of 6p.m. due to budget cuts. Now you have to go to the little coffee shop and order stuff... and drink coffee while you wait. And just so you are forewarned, the coffee is appalling. A-P-P-A-L-L-I-N-G. I've come to the conclusion that they must find some sort of roadkill to use as a strainer, then burn the coffee beans, let those sit in water for several days, then make the coffee... and then use the business end of a skunk to stir it. Its the best excuse for the taste that I could come up with. Now I have to be honest here, I don't like coffee to begin with, but dear god, on the occasions when I've had coffee, it was NEVER that bad.

So, its October, my favorite time of year. Okay, so Halloween is my favorite time of year... that makes exactly one day in which I am totally happy. Hmm. Anyway, Favorite TIME OF YEAR! I shall carve pumpkins this year, and not just threaten to do so. There are even drawings this time; that I made over the summer with which to inflict emotions upon the pumpkins. Don't feel sorry for them. They have it coming. When I am finished with the torturous ordeal, I shall post pictures. Hopefully. Unless the pumpkins are fallen upon by the ravenous hoard. Aka... the chickens. They discovered my torture victim last year, and made short work of him. Poor thing didn't even have a mouth to scream with. I hadn't gotten to him yet you see. The blog with probably undergo some changes, decoration wise. I'll still be slow putting up posts, considering I am still have 'I-not-terribly-interested-in-posting-right-now' disease. So, what have I been doing in the meantime? Well, lets see...

I decided to solve a mystery. Its called,"Why the hell is almost every anime nut I meet totally obsessed with One Piece?" (okay, not all of them, but a goodly amount if asked what which anime is the best of the best, 95% of the time, they'll say,"One Piece".) Which baffled me for a long time, because I watched One Piece on Cartoon Network, all the way up to where they pick up Sanji at the Baratie Restaurant, and decided that it really wasn't that good. Now, I did two things wrong right off the bat. ONE - I made the foolish assumption that the dubbed version was actually being honest about the original Japanese. Um. Wrong. There's a whole enormous dump truck (equivalent to those found in open quarries) load of things they leave out, that is extremely detrimental to the entire world/culture of One Piece. Yes, culture, because its definitely got one, and you lose it completely with an English dub. I don't know who makes these decisions, but they need a swift kick to the head. TWO - I stopped watching the show way too early. This show doesn't really take off until they get past Sanji. And then it takes off again once the crew gets into the Grand Line. Holy Crap, does it ever take off. How do I know this? Because I sat down this summer, and watched all of it (including the movies), online and subbed. I've said this before, and I will say it again. The people who do the fan-subs do a fantastic job translating. Granted some are better than others, but they are still head, shoulders and quite possibly chest cavities above the dubs.

I couldn't originally stand the show because of the main character. The Americanized version gave Luffy a really REALLY annoying voice, and they made him out to be a total and complete idiot. Not Luffy's fault. What he's actually saying, was not translated into English correctly, because of unknown reasons. ... okay, I have suspicions, such as, the American population no longer has the attention span, nor the willingness to understand a different culture. Plus, I'm not sure the whole concept of the word 'nakama' translates culturally here. I'm not going to try explaining either, because being an American, I can't say that I fully understand it, but I certainly love what I do understand. Secondly, Luffy's not an idiot. He's just never lost his child-like sensibilities, nor the very basic understanding of what's right and what's wrong. Everyone knows the difference between Justice and Injustice... Luffy's just very direct about how he deals with it. Thirdly, this show was presented as a children's show, and while this is true in some respect, there are totally adult dynamics at play here as well. Its funny, its sad, its heart-breaking, anger-inspiring, and even, at times horrifying, but that's what makes this show so good, and also, I have got to say when I go watch this show, I NEVER know what to expect. Its is only predictable in that you know Luffy and his crew are going to eventually kick the bad guys' ass with extreme efficiency, and that no matter what's happening they will always believe in each other, but aside from that... you never see what's coming. You never know when you're going to laugh so hard you can't breath, or cry like a baby. (That happened on more than one occasion) I guess I've become sick to death of the predictable, because I actively hunt down shows like this. I'm just sorry, I saw the dubbed version first. What a mistake that was. I missed out on Luffy for YEARS. YEARS!!! Anyway sorry to those who have no idea what I'm talking about, but to those who have yet to go watch this show, have fun. A show that's been running for over 10 years and still going strong is not something to ignore because you saw it as a kid and didn't particularly like it. So, mystery solved.

I'll stop now. Promise.

PS... okay, so Luffy is a little bit of an idiot, but he's a good person... character... whatever...